IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v442y2016icp486-497.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of the number of degrees of freedom and chaos in macroscopic irreversibility

Author

Listed:
  • Cerino, L.
  • Cecconi, F.
  • Cencini, M.
  • Vulpiani, A.

Abstract

This article aims at revisiting, with the aid of simple and neat numerical examples, some of the basic features of macroscopic irreversibility, and, thus, of the mechanical foundation of the second principle of thermodynamics as drawn by Boltzmann. Emphasis will be put on the fact that, in systems characterized by a very large number of degrees of freedom, irreversibility is already manifested at a single-trajectory level for the vast majority of the far-from-equilibrium initial conditions—a property often referred to as typicality. We also discuss the importance of the interaction among the microscopic constituents of the system and the irrelevance of chaos to irreversibility, showing that the same irreversible behaviors can be observed both in chaotic and non-chaotic systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Cerino, L. & Cecconi, F. & Cencini, M. & Vulpiani, A., 2016. "The role of the number of degrees of freedom and chaos in macroscopic irreversibility," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 442(C), pages 486-497.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:442:y:2016:i:c:p:486-497
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.09.036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437115007724
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2015.09.036?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lieb, Elliott H., 1999. "Some problems in statistical mechanics that I would like to see solved," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 263(1), pages 491-499.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Baldovin, Marco & Caprini, Lorenzo & Vulpiani, Angelo, 2019. "Irreversibility and typicality: A simple analytical result for the Ehrenfest model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 524(C), pages 422-429.
    2. Creaco, Anthony J. & Kalogeropoulos, Nikolaos, 2019. "Irreversibility from staircases in symplectic embeddings," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 513(C), pages 497-509.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gorban, Alexander, 2007. "Order–disorder separation: Geometric revision," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 374(1), pages 85-102.
    2. Gruber, Ch. & Piasecki, J., 1999. "Stationary motion of the adiabatic piston," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 268(3), pages 412-423.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:442:y:2016:i:c:p:486-497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.